Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 30, 2009 11:13 am Hi everyone, I am new to the forum. However I have gained lot of knowledge re kitchens and initial building stages. Everyday browsing has encouraged me to join the forum. I am in a dilemma. We are to settle on our land in Dec. We are finding it hard to find a decent builder in Canberra and dont want to lose out on the FHOG. Given the huge multi unit developments and new suburbs coming up the builders have hiked their prices. Can anyone please suggest a builder with good quality building.Our budget is above mid 250's and aim to build 23-25 sqs. I cant believe with a decent budget we are finding hard to get one. Re: Building House in Canberra 2Oct 30, 2009 12:12 pm It's hard when greed wins out over the little guy isn't... I'm sorry I can't help, I live in NSW, but I hope you can get it worked out. Re: Building House in Canberra 3Oct 31, 2009 9:10 pm Hi everyone, We are in a process of finding a builder for construction of our house. We just found out today after meeting up with 4 builders that our block has 3m slope towards the front. This means extra site costs. Our builder has given us a ball mark figure of 25,000. Can anyone please suggest what is the best option- 1. Provide a cut to lower our high point which happens to be our Garage or lift our low end where our master bedroom will sit. 2. Lift the lower point by putting steps at the entrance 3. Make a split level home, having stairs. Please share your opinions as this extra site cost will impact the kind of home we can build and also our budget. Re: Building House in Canberra 4Oct 31, 2009 9:21 pm We were in the same position as you are now. We have a 3.1 m fall on our lot. Instead of cutting for a slab, we went for piers. Try not to dig out your garage if you can help it, as it will make the slope more than your council will probably allow, or you'll be foreced to build farther back on your lot than you wish possibly. We wanted to build 5 metres from the front, but moved the house back to 8 metres and put it on piers. EDIT: Sorry, forgot to mention, we also have a split-lvl floorplan, there are 3 steps. Re: Building House in Canberra 5Oct 31, 2009 9:53 pm Thanx D&G for ur reply. We r meeting with our builder again to discuss the viable options. Can u pls let me know what actually are the Piers?? Split level is also an option for us. Is it possible if you could share the floorplan, pics of the house coming us with us? It would allow us to have a better pic of what is required.. Re: Building House in Canberra 6Oct 31, 2009 10:08 pm Re: Building House in Canberra 8Oct 31, 2009 10:24 pm thank you for sharing. As a rough idea, how much did ur site cost increase. For us the concern now is with the slope and our building cost shooting up, we might have to compromise on the living area. Re: Building House in Canberra 9Oct 31, 2009 10:28 pm Re: Building House in Canberra 11Oct 31, 2009 11:08 pm We'll be building in Franklin. Our land is sloping diagonally across the length of the house... We love our builder. He's been so good. We have changed our house plans around a dozen times at least..he never even winces! lol Re: Building House in Canberra 13Nov 23, 2009 11:28 am Hi Guys just an update since I last shared. As for AVJ they hv taken 5 weeks and still we do not hv the tender with us . We decided to approach Rawson Homes for a tender. They promised that we would have it by the end of this week. In all we hv spent $650 each(given to both these builders) to get the tender to us. the new builder are suggesting retaining walls of 550-750mm at the back. This means we would need structural engineer to sign them off and essentially for us more site costs. I am not sure if they would be putting retaining walls or is this additional cost to us and also who is going to pay for the removing of the fill from our site. Would appreciate if you guys can share ur experiences. I have started to trust this forum and fall back on the suggestions given. Re: Building House in Canberra 14Nov 23, 2009 1:10 pm Hi SimI We are building with Goldruby Homes - they are super accomodating and are always happy to talk things through with you and listen to your ideas and then most likely point you in another (usually better) direction We don't have a slope on our block, but our builder pointed one out that had a massive cut in it and said that it would be cheaper to build a split level home on a block like that rather than cut out a massive section of it. Lisa Wow I hadn't realised things had gotten that pricey in just a couple of years since I built, that is crazy with how much land is now costing if you aren't lucky enough to… 3 7132 Hi All It has been a few weeks since my last update. The build has been progressing well. No major issues to report. The scaffolding was dropped today, gyprock will be… 96 357029 Building a fence now will help limit people dumping rubbish and soil on your property. Many houses in suburbia on small lots have fences up before a build. I moved into a… 1 4410 |